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About Rich Copley & Copious Notes

Raised by opera-loving parents in a rock ’n’ roll world, Rich Copley has parlayed his broad interests into his career writing about arts and entertainment. Since 1998, he has covered performing arts, film and faith-based popular culture for the Lexington Herald-Leader, the daily newspaper in Lexington, Ky. It’s a pretty broad beat, but Rich delights in finding influences of the past in the present and showing fine arts fans the value of pop culture, and vice versa. ~ Copious Notes is a blog covering that broad spectrum. If you want to read about specific areas of interest, such as theater or opera, click on one of the categories to the right and you will be whisked away to all posts in that category. Also, look around the blog for links; multimedia items such as photo albums, videos, and interviews with artists; and other nuggets. Have fun, and thanks for dropping in.
The header for this blog was designed by Danny Kelly and the illustration was drawn by Camille Weber.

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December 23, 2006

A chat with two 'Color Purple' people from Louisville

NEW YORK — It’s a small world, and in The Color Purple, actors Eric L. Christian and LaVon Fisher-Wilson found out Broadway is even smaller.Both attended Louisville’s Youth Performing Arts School, Christian a few years ahead of Fisher-Wilson.“He was the hot-shot senior,” Fisher-Wilson, who graduated from YPAS in 1991, says of Christian, who was in the class of ’89.After graduation, they took divergent paths from Louisville to Oprah Winfrey’s big Broadway production. But now, they are together again backstage at the Broadway Theatre.Both are swings, meaning they understudy several roles in the show.
“It’s the first original production that I have been an original cast member in,” Christian (photo, right, by by Aaron Lee Fineman, backstage at The Color Purple) says of the show, which celebrated its first anniversary Dec. 1. “That’s exciting because you get to work from the bottom up, creating all of these things.“This show has been a very interesting journey, arriving at what it is. Lots of ups and downs, lots of changes in choreography and music, to the point that sometimes you would get songs, and that night, you were putting them in the show — full songs, trying to figure out what worked best.”Fisher-Wilson joined the cast in September.When she got a call to audition for the show, “I was a little pessimistic,” she says, “because I had auditioned for The Color Purple before, and I said, ‘They don’t want me.’”
But they did, and Fisher-Wilson (photo, left, by Aaron Lee Fineman, backstage at The Color Purple), who has taken a long journey to her Broadway debut, says, “It’s my dream I kept deferring and doing other things. I think I was supposed to do other things because I am glad I am the age I am and have the mind-set I’m in because I am very focused and driven about what I am going to do.” Fisher-Wilson continues, “Also, I could have been put in any cast, but I wound up in this one. The love and care of Kentucky keeps drawing me back to my family, and I get that here with this cast.“I haven’t even met Oprah yet, but to have my dream happen and to be in such a loving environment is a blessing.”Part of the reason Fisher-Wilson kept deferring the dream was that she always wanted to move back to Kentucky.After graduation from YPAS, Fisher-Wilson went to Millikin University in Decatur, Ill., for her bachelor’s degree and then to the University of Florida for graduate school. After that, she embarked on a touring and regional theater career. She was frequently tempted to move to New York but was a little timid about making the leap.One thing she was doing and still wants to pursue is creating youth arts programs in Louisville. For several years, she ran Ujamma, an African dance program for girls. Part of the motivation for heading to New York was that to get grants at the level she needed, she needed to have some Broadway credits on her résumé.It also helped that she met her husband, who is from New York, though he is now with Fisher-Wilson in her desire to eventually move to Kentucky.“I am on this journey, and we will see where it takes me, but eventually, the journey will lead back to Kentucky,” she says.Christian, on the other hand, recalls, “When I first hit New York, when I was 16, I said, ‘This fits my pace. This is where I want to be.’ ”He’s now been in the city 12 years, performing in the Broadway productions of Hairspray and The Lion King, in which he understudied Simba, as well going on several national tours.He is actually a Lexington native and attended Meadowthorpe Elementary School before he moved to Louisville in sixth grade. Christian got his first taste of stage work at a Lexington Children’s Theatre’s summer program. His tuition for that and several summer theater programs was supported by the Chittenden family, which he considers the “guardians” of his theatrical development.“We couldn’t afford the tuition to the Children’s Theatre programs,” Christian said of his family. “But they said, ‘We think this would be good for you, and we really want you to do it.’“Lexington is where the bug started,” Christian reflects, and though he now calls New York home, he says his Kentucky upbringing “was the foundation of everything that I have arrived at.”

In it's third edition, Questapalooza attracted 6,500 people to Quest Community Church in Lexington, Ky., on Aug. 31, 2008. The music lineup was Kirk Franklin, Kutless and needtobreathe. In addition to the tunes, festival goers enjoyed carnival attractions, contests, heard a sermon and witnessed baptisms.

The 2008 Ichthus Festival was a roller coaster ride. The week started with the first project by Ichthus Ministries' environmental initiative: ECOS (Earth Commission, Operation Simplify). Then there was the severe thunderstorm June 9 that leveled 14 out of 19 tents at the festival site, with only two days left to open. And it did open, earlier than ever with a Thursday morning battle of the bands. That was followed by one of the hottest Ichthus days ever, and we aren't just talking about Skillet's set the night of June 12. The next day was Friday the 13th, and it turned out to be unlucky for the fest, with thunderstorms scuttling the evening lineup. But as it often has, Ichthus rallied with a fun and worshipful Saturday. The Herald-Leader crew was out there all week. Here's our photo album.

May 19 to 29, 2008, the University of Kentucky Wind Ensemble is taking a trip to China, where it is scheduled to play six concerts and visit seven cities. The tour finds China eagerly anticipating the 2008 Summer Olympics while also mourning the loss of tens of thousands of its citizens to a devastating earthquake on May 12. This photo album begins with images taken by the Herald-Leader's Whitney Waters at event's leading up to the ensemble's departure.

Actors Guild of Lexington's early spring production is Tom Stoppard's brainy drama, Arcadia. The show is a mystery over several centuries involving math, science and literature. Here's a look at some images from the show, which runs through April 6 at the Downtown Arts Center, by Herald-Leader photographer Charles Bertram. The photos are copyrighted by the Herald-Leader.

After years of going to -- excuse us while we clear our throats -- Louisville, Winter Jam finally came to Kentucky's true big house, Rupp Arena, March 6, 2008. That gave Lexington a heaping helping of MercyMe, BarlowGirl and Skillet, as well as others. This is a little record of the event.

The University of Kentucky Opera Theatre is presenting its production of Engelbert Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel" through March 8, 2008 at the Lexington Opera House. To give more students a shot at the stage, and for the sake of the singers' voices, two casts were fielded for this production. University of Kentucky photographer Tim Collins shot both casts. Here's a selection of those images.

Lexington Native Amber Rhodes is a budding country star, shopping a hit independent release around the country, hoping to land a recording contract with a major label. To take a peek into the life of an aspiring country star, and to see how much work it is, I went down to Nashville to spend a day with Amber, as she works to get her name out there. Here are some pictures from that trip. All photos are copyrighted by the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Between June 21 and Aug. 2, eight new plays or musicals opened in the immediate Lexington area. That was an extraordinary number of shows for a summer in the Bluegrass State. Here, we offer a photo album from behind the scenes and on stage.

On April 29, 2007, Lexington native Laura Bell Bundy realized her dream of creating a role in a Broadway musical when she took the stage of New York's Palace Theatre playing Elle Woods in 'Legally Blonde.' It's a goal she'd been working toward since age 10, when she played monstrous child star Tina Denmark in the Off Broadway hit 'Ruthless.' Her 'Legally Blonde' performance earned Bundy a Tony Award nomination for best leading actress in a musical. Over the years, Herald-Leader photographers have chronicled Bundy's career. These are some of their best shots, along with a few other photos.

Stephanie Pistello graduated from Lafayette High School and Transylvania University. She went to New York to pursue an acting career, but returned in August 2006 with her New Mummer Group to present Tennessee Williams' "Candles to the Sun" at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Since 1999, the Herald-Leader has previewed the Lexington Shakespeare Festival with profiles and environmental portraits of the actors or directors involved in each show. This is a gallery of those fantastic images.